OTM shares surge after newspaper columnist recommends ‘buy’

City investment tipster Sabah Meddings at the Sunday Times helps portal's shares continue a 28-day rally.

The share price of OnTheMarket (OTM) has continued its 28-day rally helped by a newspaper columnist who gave the portal a glowing review in her City business column over the weekend and recommended that readers buy its stock.

Investors have already been heartened by a string of good news from OTM including surging traffic to its portal, as well as the column from Sabah Meddings at The Sunday Times.

It said the portal is “ramping up plans to turn a profit” and that as many agents will know, it is preparing to convert industry customers on introductory offers into fee-paying ones.

Duopoly

“Until now, Rightmove and Zoopla have enjoyed a duopoly online,” she said, quoting recent comments by OTM’s CEO Ian Springett that “in some cases, agents are paying Rightmove more than they are paying in rent for their office”.

This helped give the portal’s share price an extra bounce yesterday, rising from £1.07p to £1.20p at its height, a rise of 12%. This increase is part of a upward trend for the company’s stock, which has increased by two thirds from 72p in late January.

Sabah (pictured, left) Meddings’ column also quotes unnamed analysts who have claimed that OTM will give Zoopla and Rightmove a “run for their money” based on a strategy of charging estate agents a monthly fee that’s a quarter of Rightmove’s.

Based on Friday’s share price of £1.06.5p, the company is valued at £65 million.